Wiper for slug trimming knives



Feb. 4, 1936.

A. G. SPERRY WIPE-R FOR SLUG TRIMMING KNIVES Filed May 24, 1935 4, Q 2 5 2/ 1 m3 5 "I I fl mm} I iii: i 5

2 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR FETHUP G 5PA=RY ATTORNEYS Feb. 4, 1936. A G, pRRY 2,030,036

WIPE-R FOR SLUG TRIMMING KNIVES Filed May 24-, 1935 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR Her/10R 6. 51 91? Y I ATTORNEY5 Patented Feb. 4, 1936 UNITED STATES PATENT DFFIQE Arthur G. Sperry, Hollis, N. Y., assignor to Intertype Corporation, Brooklyn, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application May 24, 1935, Serial No. 23,304

22 Claims.

The present invention relates to improvements in line casting machines and more especially to those of the class wherein type bars or slugs are cast in a mold from lines of matrices and the slugs are ejected from the mold and forced between a pair of knives which trim the sides of the slugs to bring them accurately into parallelism and to bring the slugs to the proper thickness, and the primary object of the inven tion is to provide improved means for cleaning or wiping the cutting edges of the side trimming knives to remove any metal shavings which may adhere to the knives and which, if not removed therefrom would be likely to become imbedded in or attached to the character bearing edges of subsequently ejected slugs.

Wipers for the side trimming knives heretofore employed in line casting machines have ordinarily comprised a single thin blade for wipingboth knives, the wiping blade being arranged on the end of a rod projecting into the limited space between the knives and the mold, the support for the rod however being so remote from the wiping blade that proper pressure and contact of the blade against the knives could not be maintained so that the wiping action was often imperfect. Moreover, due to the remoteness of the support for the wiper carrying and actuating rod and the fact that the cutting edges of the knives are inclined, usually forwardly from bottom to top, in order to provide a shearing action while trimming the slugs, and the further fact that, in some cases, the cutting edge of one knife stands slightly back of that of the other knife, wipers as heretofore used frequently fail to wipe the full length of the knife edges or they fail to contact with the edges of both knives. Furthermore, the wipers as heretofore used do not always operate freely so'that the wiping blade frequently fails to complete its stroke throughout the length of the knives, in which event the wiper blade lies across the slug passage between the knivesand often becomes bent or broken. Such faults in wipers as heretofore employed are a constant source of annoyance and delay in the operation of the machine.

The present invention overcomes such difficulties and provides a knife wiper which is positive in its wiping action and is more dependable and less subject to breakage or failure than the wipers heretofore employed. According to the present invention, a pair of wipers preferably in the form of blades of yieldable material of about thefull length of the knives are employed,

one blade being arranged longitudinally of the cutting edge of each knife, the blades being preferably mounted directly on the respective knives although they may be mounted independently thereof if desired. The wiper blades are so'disposed as to normally lie in a plane below the cutting edges and in retracted relation to such edges of the knives, and they are movable in opposite directions, by relatively short strokes, transversely toward and across the cutting edges of the respective knives and are then returned to normal retracted position, at each actuation thereof, the wiper blades being firmly guided while moving in both directions and operative by relatively short and direct connections to actuating means therefor. The wiping thus obtained is more thorough and dependable than heretofore, the positive guiding of the blades in close proximity to the knives and short and direct actuating connections for the wiper blades enabling uniform and proper degree of pressure of the wipers against the knives to be obtained as well as certainty of operation of the wipers without binding or breakage.

To these and other ends, the invention consists in certain improvements and combinations and arrangements of parts all as will be hereinafter more fully described, the features of novelty being pointed out more particularly in the claims at the end of this specification.

In the accompanying drawings:

Figure 1 is a side elevation of a portion of a line casting machine including the slug side trimming knives, to which knife wipers and actuating means therefor according to the present invention are applied;

Figure 2 is a top plan view, partly in horizontal section, showing the wipers according to the present invention mounted on the side trimming knives;

Figure 3 is an elevation of the vise frame of the machine as viewed from its rear or inner side, showing the knife wipers and their actuating means in normal position; and

Figure 4 is a View similar to Figure 3 but showing the improved knife wipers in fully actuated positions.

Similar parts are designated by the same reference characters in the difierent figures.

The invention is shown in the present instance as applied to the side trimming-knives of a slug casting machine of usual and well known construction provided with left hand and right hand slug trimming knives l and 2 respectively, the left hand knife I being usually secured in fixed position, as by screws, on the vise frame 3, and

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the right hand knife 2 being usually adjustable for the trimming of slugs of different thicknesses and slidably carried on a so-called knife block t, the latter being secured in fixed position on the vise frame. For example, the adjustable mounting for the knife 2 may be similar to that disclosed in U. S. Letters Patent No. 1,202,720 granted October 24, 1916, the right hand trimming knife 2 being shown in the present instance as adjustable by means of a rotatable disk 5 having a screw thread 5 thereon which is rotatable in a complementary internally threaded collar 3 which forms a part of the knife block 4. The knife 2 has abutment screws 1 threaded for adjustment into the outer side thereof, these screws being arranged to contact with the face of the retatable adjusting disk 5, and these screws are retained in engagement with the face of the disk 5 by a tension spring 8 one end of which may be attached to the knife 2 and the other end of which may be attached to the knife block, as by a hook 9. By this arrangement, rotation of the disk 5 in one or the other direction will cause the screw thread 6 thereon to shift the disk axially, ad since the screws 1 on the knife 2 bear against the disk 5 and are maintained in contact therewith by the spring 3, such axial movements of the disk will adjust the knife 2 to vary the width of the gap or passage between it and the knife 5 and thus enable slugs of different thicknesses to pass between the knives as they are ejected by the usual ejector blade it from the usual meld H in which the slugs are cast, and as the slugs pass between the knives the side faces thereof will be trimmed to bring them into parallelism and to bring the slugs to the proper thickness.

The knife wipers in the preferred embodiment of the invention and as shown in the present instance, comprise a pair of wiper plates I2 and 13 for the knives l and 2 respectively, each wiper plate being preferably of substantially the same length as the knives and being preferably mounted directly on the respective knives by means of shoulder screws l4 and !5 which are secured in the respective knives and extend through angular or inclined slots l6 and l! in the respective wiper plates. The slots 86, a pair of which are preferably provided in the wiper plate l2, are both parallel, and inclined in the same direction, and the slots ll, a pair of which are preferably provided in the wiper plate I3, are parallel and inclined in the same direction to one another but are inclined in the opposite direction to the inclination of the slots H2 in the wiper plate 52. The wiper plates 52 and !3 are provided with yieldable wiper blades l8 and !9 respectively, these blades being composed preferably of fiat fiexible strips of a suitable metal or other material, these blades being secured to the respective wiper plates, along their remote edges, as by rivets so that their proximate wiping edges I8 and l9 may deflect laterally away from the respective plates l2 and !3. The screws l4 and I5 and the cooperating slots l6 and I! maintain the wiping edges of the blades is and H9 in substantial parallelism with the cutting edges of the knives,

The wiper blades l8 and i9 lie normally in a plane below or offset forwardly of the plane in which lie the cutting edges 2| of the knives, and the wiping edges of the wiper blades [8 and 19 are normally retracted from the cutting edges of the respective knives, as shown in Figure 2. The knives, at the outer sides of their cutting edges 2!, are sloped as usual, as indicated at 22, so

that as the wiper blades I8 and I9 are moved toward one another their wiping edges |8=- and I9 will ride upon these slopes of the knives until they reach the cutting edges thereof and they will then move inwardly over the cutting edges of the knives to effect the wiping action, the flexibility of the wiper blades enabling them to deflect laterally or rearwardly as their wiping edges ride upon the slopes 22 of the respective knives.

The present invention provides simple and efficient means for actuating the wipers, and the wiper actuating means is preferably operative automatically and by power. Preferably and as shown in the present instance, the actuating means for the wipers comprises a bracket 23 which is guided to reciprocate vertically on the vise frame by shoulder screws 24 secured therein and extending through vertical slots 25 in the bracket, A spring 23 attached at one end to a stud 27 secured to the bracket and attached at its other end to a stud 28 secured to the vise frame normally retains the bracket in its lower position, as shown in Figure 3. The bracket 23 is provided with a groove 29 which extends horizontally across the upper portion thereof, and

this groove is adapted to receive rollers 30 and 3! which are mounted on extensions 32 and 33 which are connected to and extend downwardly from the respective wiper plates I2 and IS. The

lower end of the bracket 23 is provided with a stud 33 which projects laterally therefrom and engages in a slot 35 formed in a lever 36, the latter being fixed to one end of a shaft 3'! which is journalled to rotate in a bearing 38 in the vise frame, the other end of the shaft 31 having a lever 39 fixed thereto, said lever having a cam face 49 formed on its lower end.

According to the construction just described upward movement of the bracket 23 from its normal lower position shown in Figure 3 will cause it to act, through the rollers 33 and 3|, to move the yielding wiper blades I8 and I9 from their normal retracted positions as shown in this figure, transversely or toward one another in an oblique path, while guided by the screws I4 and I5 engaging in the inclined slots l6 and I1, across the cutting edges of the knives into the positions shown in Figure 4, and descent of the bracket 23 or return thereof to its normal lowered position as shown in Figure 3 causes retraction of the wiper blades to their normal positions shown in this figure. It is convenient to utilize the vertical movement of the first elevator commonly used in machines of this class to eifect the movements of the bracket 23 and thus actuate f the wiper blades, the first elevator slide 4| which is guided as usual in bearings on the front of the vise frame, being shown in its lowered or casting position in Figure 1 and being movable to a higher level where the matrix line is discharged from its jaws 42, all of which is well known in machines of this class. For this purpose, a stud 43 having a rounded head 44 may be secured on the rear face of the first elevator slide 4| in such a position that when the slide is in its lowered or casting position where it rests on top of the vise cap as shown in Figure 1, it will lie slightly below the cam face on the lower end of the lever 39. Accordingly, when the slide 4! makes its upward movement after completion of a casting operation, the rounded face 44 on the stud 43 will ride on the cam face 48 of the lever 33 and cause the shaft 31 to rotate in a direction to rock the lever 36 upwardly, thereby lifting the bracket 23 from the position shown in Figure 3 to that shown in Figure 4; and immediately after the stud 43 has passed the cam face 49, the spring 26 will act to rock the levers 38 and 39 back to the normal position shown in Figure 1, and at the same time to return the bracket 23 to its normal lowered position as shown in Figure 3. Such vertical reciprocation of the bracket 23 will cause the wiper plates I2 and i3 and the yielding wiper blades 18 and I9 thereon to move first toward and then from one another across the cutting edges of the respective knives after each casting operation, the oppositely inclined slots It and I! in the wiper plates causing them to move obliquely in opposite directions when these plates are raised and lowered by the bracket, and the rollers 30 and 3i connected to the lower ends of the Wiper plates being freely movable in the horizontal groove 29 in the upper portion of the bracket 23 so that the oblique movements of the wiper plates will be compensated for.

As the wiper plates thus move transversely with respect to the cutting edges of the knives, the yielding wiper blades will flex sufficiently to ride up the slopes 22 of the knives, from their normal plane below the cutting edges of the knives, and afterthe wiper blades have advanced toward one another slightly beyond the cutting edges of the knives, as shown in Figure 4, they will be retracted to their normal position shown in Figure 3 and will flex back to their normal plane as shown in Figure 2. Such transverse movements of the wiper blades across the cutting edges of the knives and return to their normal retracted positions will take place not only subsequent to each casting operation, as already described but also prior to each casting operation. it being understood that the head of the stud 43 will pass over the cam face 40 on the lever 39 each time the first elevator slide moves downwardly from its normal line receiving position to the casting position where it rests on the vise cap, as shown in Figure l.

The horizontal groove 29 in the bracket 23 is of suiiicient length that the rollers 30 and 3| will remain engaged therein when the adjustable trimming knife 2 is set in different adjusted positions or the knife I is located in different set positions, and hence the connection of the wipers to the actuating mechanism will remain undisturbed when the knives are relatively adjusted to vary the width of the opening between them to accommodate the knives to the trimming of slugs of different thicknesses.

By providing separate wipers for the respective knives, uniform pressure of the Wiping edges against the cutting edges of the knives can be maintained over the entire extent of the cutting edges, even when these edges are spaced apart different distances as required for trimming slugs of different thicknesses or sizes and when the cutting edges of the knives do not lie in the same plane. Moreover, positive contact of the wipers can be maintained along the entire extent of the cutting edges of the knives at all times since each wiper is mounted with its wiping edge parallel to the cutting edge of its respective knife, or substantially so, and the wipers are guided positively while moving across the cutting edges of the knives when the latter are set at different distances apart or when the cutting edge of one knife lies back of the cutting edge of the other knife. Also, although separate wipers are provided for the respective knives, the mounting and guiding means provided for the wipers result in a simple and compact construction in which both wipers can be conveniently and directly coupled to a single actuating device acting endwise on the wipers to move them transversely of the cutting edges of the knives.

I claim as my invention:-

1. In a line casting machine having a pair of slug trimming knives, wipers individual to the knives and each mounted for movement across the plane of the cutting edge of the respective knife, and power driven means for moving the wipers.

2. In a line casting machine having a pair of slug trimming knives, distinct wipers each mounted movably with respect to one of the knives and having a wiping edge located in a plane substantially parallel to the cutting edge of the respective knife and out of contact with said knife edge, and power driven means for moving the wipers into and out of contact with the cutting edges of the respective knives.

3. In a line casting machine having a pair of slug trimming knives, a pair of wipers each movably mounted in position to contact with the cutting edge of one of the knives, and actuating means common to both wipers to move them simultaneously into and out of contact with the cutting edges of the-respective knives.

4. In a line casting machine having a pair of slug trimming knives, a wiper for each knife, and means for relatively moving both wipers in opposite directions over the cutting edges of the: respective knives transversely of the length of said cutting edges.

5. In a line casting machine having a pair of slug trimming knives, a movable wiper for each knife, and actuating means for moving the wipers one toward the other, transversely of the knives, to cause each Wiper to contact with the cutting edge of its respective knife when actuated.

6. In a line casting machine having a pair of slug trimming knives, a wiper for each knife, and actuating means for simultaneously moving each of the wipers in opposite directions toward and from the cutting edge of the respective knife.

7. In a line casting machine having a pair of slug trimming knives, a wiper for each knife, and actuating means operatively connected to the wipers for moving them toward and from one another transversely of the cutting edges of the respective knives from normal positions removed from the cutting edges thereof to positions beyond said cutting edges and back to said normal positions.

8. In a line casting machine having a pair of slug trimming knives with opposed longitudinally extending cutting edges lying side by side, a wiper for each knife, and actuating means for moving the wipers in opposite directions first to advance and thereafter toretract them over the full extent of the cutting edges of the respective knives.

9. In a line casting machine having a pair of slug trimming knives, a wiper mounted on each knife and having a Wiping edge normally held in a position removed from and offset below the level of the cutting edge of the respective knife, and means for advancing each wiper from its normal position to a position beyond the cutting edge of its respective knife and for retracting each wiper from such position to said normal position.

10. In a line casting machine having a pair of slug trimming knives with longitudinally extending cutting edges, a longitudinally extending wiper blade movably mounted on each knife below the level of its cutting edge, and means for moving the wiper blades transversely in an oblique path across the cutting edges of the respective knives.

11. The arrangement according to claim 10 wherein the mounting means for the respective wiper blades permits limited relative movement of the blades in opposite directions.

12. In a line casting machine having a pair of slug trimming knives, at least one of which is adjustable to set it at different distances from the other knife, a wiper mounted on each knife for transverse movement relative to the cutting edge thereof, and actuating means for moving the wipers across the cutting edges of the respective knives while the latter occupy different relatively adjusted positions.

13. In a line casting machine having a pair of slug trimming knives, a yielding wiper blade movably mounted on each of the knives and having a wiping edge parallel to the cutting edge of the respective knife and normally below the level of said cutting edge, and means for moving the respective wipers to cause their wiping edges to advance in parallelism with the cutting edges of the respective knives and across said cutting edges.

14. In a line casting machine having a pair of slug trimmin knives capable of being relatively set at diiierert distances apart, a wiper movably mounted on each of the knives, actuating means for moving the wipers relative to the cutting edges of the respective knives, and connecting means adapted to maintain each wiper in operative relation with the actuating means while the knives are relatively set at different distances apart.

1.5. In a line casting machine having a pair of slug trimming knives with a slug ejecting passage between their cutting edges and relatively adjustable to vary the width of said passage, a pair of movable wipers, and means for mounting said wipers topermit equal movement thereof over the cutting edges of the respective knives and across the passage between said edges irrespective of the width of said passage.

16. In a line casting machine having a pair of slug trimming knives arranged side by side with a passage between their cutting edges, a pair of wipers having wiping edges arranged parallel to the cutting edges of the knives and mounted for transverse movement into contact with said cutting edges and partially over the passage between them.

1'7. In a line casting machine having a pair of slug trimming knives, a Wiper movably mounted on each of said knives out of contact with the cutting edge thereof and of a length substantially equal to that of the cutting edge, and actuating means connected to one end of each wiper and operative to: move the wipers transversely across the cutting edges of the respective knives.

18. The arrangement according to claim 1'7 wherein the wipers comprise movable plates, wiping blades of yielding material attached to said plates, and means guiding said plates for movement in a fixed plane.

19. The arrangement according to claim 17 wherein rollers connect the wipers to the actuating means and permit the wipers to move transversely while. the actuating means moves longitudinally of the cutting edges of the knives.

20. The arrangement according to claim 1'7 wherein the actuating means is operative directly and positively to move the wipers transversely toward the cutting edges of the respective knives, and including a spring for retracting the wipers from said cutting edges.

21. In a line casting machine having a pair of slug trimming knives at least one of which knives is adjustable, a wiper mounted on the adjustable knife for movement over the cutting edge thereof in transverse direction.

22. In a line casting machine having a pair of slug trimming knives, independent movable wipers for the respective knives and actuating means for moving the wipers to advance and retract them a plurality of times over the cutting edges of the respective knives during each cycle of operation of the machine.

ARTHUR G. SPERRY. 

